I am very similar. Major addiction and alcoholism issues for many years which I overcame. Overcoming those did not really help my mental illness though. In fact it got worse. But the self medicating was not going to work anymore....it quit working. So medication, therapy, being honest, meditation, and all i can think of to throw at it is what I do. It has still been a life long struggle. Living with it and holding on to hope that it can get better is how I deal with it. Currently I am doing very well so it can get better but it could get worse again. I am glad abilify is helping, maybe other things can help as well.